HoggyDog wrote:
I keep Mobile Data turned off at all times to avoid data overage charges. When I want to receive or send an MMS while at home and connected to wi-fi, I simply turn on Mobile Data until the message transaction is done, then turn it back off. Again, as I have stated clearly, it always worked before the 4.4.4 update. Also, two different AT&T reps have assured me that MMS works fine over wi-fi, that the only reason Mobile Data has to be turned on to send/receive MMS is that the message header info has to come over the cellular data network, but that the MMS message itself, including the image(s) or video(s), passes over wi-fi and the entire process does NOT run my data plan usage up.
I am fascinated by all the replies here alleging that MMS over wi-fi is just not possible, yet nonetheless AT&T Wireless Tech Support spent hours in chat with me 2 days ago trying to make it work like it always worked before the 4.4.4 update, and now sweet Charise, an AT&T employee, is posting suggestions to try to help me get it working again. Why would all of these AT&T employees do that if it was impossible for MMS to work over wi-fi? Are those of you who claim it's impossible actually saying that you know this to be a fact, and AT&T Wireless Tech Support (and now, Charise) are so un-knowledgeable that they don't know what you know? Also, my preferred messaging client, Textra, has a setting to "prefer wi-fi for MMS when available." Why would this program have a setting to enable something that is impossible???
As info, I have tried the AT&T Messaging app as well as the other (default-generic) messaging app that came pre-loaded on the phone (it's just called "Messaging" so I don't know if it's a Samsung app or an Android/Google app). With all 3 clients, the result is the same: although I used to be able to, now I can no longer send or receive MMS over wi-fi, or even when wi-fi is turned on.
Thanks for trying to help, Charise, but Auto Network Switching is not the culprit because it is, and always has been even when MMS over wi-fi worked for me, disabled.
Tech support has one thing right, MMS does not count against your cellular data but it requires cellular data to work. Regardless of what else they have told you, I believe MMS does not work over wifi and never has. If there have been changes to the MMS protocol that I'm not aware of and it is now supported over wifi, then maybe I'm wrong, but until someone proves it to me, I'll continue to believe that MMS does not work over wifi. As you noted, your preferred client "Textra" has a setting for wifi over MMS. That means when it is using wifi, it is not using MMS but rather it is using some other protocol. All I'm saying is that the MMS messaging protocol does not work over wifi. Other messaging protocols may well work over wifi.